Returning to Teaching, But What About My Finances?

Last Thursday it became official.  It also became very real.  I'm talking about my important announcement to the staff at the high school I have been working at the past 7 years.  I had to let everyone know I'd not be returning for an eighth year as their assistant principal.  It was an incredibly difficult thing to do, and right now I'm just talking about coming out with it.  But it had to be done.  This is how I did it: 

Staff,

I'm afraid that the Corrido (ballad) of Carlos Gomez at X HS has finished playing.  

My 7 years at X HS have been amazing and I have truly enjoyed working here with all of you.  

To say the experiences I've had are memorable would be an understatement.

After ten years of administration, all as a HS A.P., I've come to realize the next level 

is not for me.  That's not a bad thing, of course; it's a discovery about me that simply 

took me ten years to figure out with conviction.

I'm sure the birth of my daughter, Rehani, 3.5 years ago had a lot to do with my revelation.  

My son, Ajani, born almost two years ago...wow...time flies...sealed the deal.

So...next year I will be at X MS, teaching science and whatever else I'm qualified for.  

This was my first selection, as  X MS is only ten minutes from home and off the San Luis 

Rey Bike Path.  My email will be the same in case you want to holler at me.  If you want to 

keep seeing pics of my kids and wife...because I'm the ugly one, add me 

to your FB when you get a chance. 

Good luck to all of you as you continue here at X.  I will miss this place.

The email was short and sweet as you can see.  Immediately after sending it out, I received multiple replies.  Most of them applauded my decision to return to teaching and spend more time with my family.  Others thanked me for the service I had provided to the school.  The usual, you will be missed type of stuff.

It was a big decision.  A scary one at that.  One that I had been in the process of making for over two years.  Back then, the first question I had to ponder was: "Do you really want to move to the next level, i.e., become a school principal?"  Putting the added pay aside, the answer came to be, no.  Why no?  Here were some of my key reasons:

1) I didn't want to have 7 masters at a time: Parents, teachers, classified staff, district admin, students, boosters, and neighboring residents.

2) After working closely with 8 high school Principals at 4 different high schools over my ten year admin career, I realized the role of the school Principal is a total Mission Impossible.

3) I did not want to lose me, in the process of being absorbed by the life of a school Principal. 

4) Most importantly, I did not want to lose my family, gaining the monumental responsibility of overseeing an entire community.

The life of a High School Assistant Principal is hard enough as it is.  When your children are 1 and under 2, not having you around is something they won't hold against you in the future.  At this age, children can't communicate to tell you they miss you.  And they won't remember much.  But sometime last year, Rehani started asking Jessica, "Where's daddy?" as she was being put down for the night.  "Daddy's working," was Jessica's response to Rehani many a time.  It killed me.

Rehani and I at my office three years ago

I had the fortune of starting my admin career as a 28-year-old.  I'm 38.  So I was able to do many things to set myself up for a comfortable retirement, prior to having my first offspring at 35.  According to San Diego Financial Planner, Scott Killian, who just did my entire finances for a Money Magazine article, I have assets totaling $1,016,500.  My total liabilities are $698,900.  My investments keep panning out.  If you've been a long time follower, you'd know I also have a side business, Common Core Money, LLC.  My earnings were a little over $8K last year.  I anticipate my revenue to be $13K this year, working with three clients on retainer status, and doing freelancing at eLance.

Money article

I was told by Human Resources that I'd be making $81K+ as a teacher on year 15 of the salary scale.  My two masters degrees counted finally for something.  Teachers get more pay for having units beyond a BS/BA.  I'm currently making about $105K. That's a significant amount of annual earnings I'd be down.  To say I didn't worry about it would be a lie.  Of course I did!  After a long talk with my wife at the start of this school year, it was decided that my happiness and my children having me around in the evenings, was more important than the loss of over $25K in salary.  Jessica agreed to do so temp jobs here and there as a dental assistant, to help out the cause.

One bit of recent good news is that the district and teacher's union are in negotiations right now.  One of the items to be negotiated is salary.  So, there may be an additional salary increase to come at the start of next year.  Still, I don't see myself making more than $84K for at least two years.

I'm a resourceful character, as you've all I'm sure noticed by now.  So, even though I have a side business and passive income from rental properties and other assets, I thought it wouldn't hurt to look for more ways of making supplemental income as a teacher.  I know what to do to make more income using tricks of the trade, for example, becoming a coach, or department chair, etc.  I didn't want my extra income coming from added roles at the school, however.

I did an Amazon search for a Teacher's Guide on supplemental income and guess what?  None existed.  How can this be?  You mean to tell me that teachers are on their own out there?  No one has created a resource to help them learn how to earn money outside of school?  A travesty, but not for long.  You see, I took to going around my school and speaking with both new and mid career teachers.  I also communicated with many teachers I have as Facebook friends.  My question to them was, "Would you buy a book titled, 'The Ultimate Teacher's Guide to Supplemental Income?'"  I told them it would be a resource for teachers who want to make more income on top of their teacher salary.  Their answers were positive and the idea was well received.  After all, we live in the 21st Century, where side-hustling has been facilitated by the latest technological advances.  And so has the income and wealth gap.

As a parting gift to the teachers at the school where I work, and as a gift to all hard working teachers across this great nation, I have started writing an eBook whose title will be, The Ultimate Teacher's Guide to Supplemental Income.  I will publish this book on Amazon for Kindle to coincide with the end of this school year, sometime in early June.  If you're a teacher and are reading this post, I would love your feedback.  Give me your initial thoughts on this.  You can comment here below or email me at calilimexica@yahoo.com.  I'd also like to have a pre-launch review of my book and would like to have 10-15 volunteers read my book for free, and give me their feedback, so I can make last minute tweaks before going live with it.  If you're interested email me, please.

Thanks for reading! Follow on Twitter: @COsvaGomez.